- If I am accompanying Paul anywhere in future, unless we’re evac’ing from a fire, we are not taking the gd stairs. If I watch him fall down those curving steps at Royal City Square because he literally has damage to the reflex to put his hands up when he falls, not only will I be filling out forms for a year (nb this is family joke of long standing and has nothing to do with the seriousness of the event) I’ll be traumatized for the rest of my life.
- He looked at his blood pressure and said, “That’s not so bad,” to which my response was, “You’re teetering on the edge of a hypertensive crisis. Last November I had blood pressure like that and went to RCH.” His answer to this was to blame the coffee he drank this morning.
- The name for the inability to be able to recognize that you have an attested and duly diagnosed legitimate medical condition is anosognosia aka our old friend Annis O’Nose-ya and Christ alive but it’s swift becoming a walking stick among my words.
- Paul set himself two tasks today. When I called him to say YOU HAVE TASKS, which I am supposed to accompany you on, he blanked. But he figured it out fast enough, and I got him over here this morning before Suzanne arrived. He handed his phone over to Jeff, who did what he has long been expected to do, and fixed the problem with kind words, and then I disappeared Paul to the aforementioned mall.
- The store he remembered was gone. I took no offence to this at all, since it had vanished between today and the last time I was in the mall, probably a good six months ago. I mean, I’ve been into the Save-On and the Wal-Mart (the former much more than the latter) which butt onto the western end of the mall, but I don’t normally go into the mall, which is very distinguished by how, apart from the retail staff, I’m often the youngest person in view. Not to put to fine a point on it, I turned 64 this week. I felt like a mere stripling, actually.
- He had to poop. Took a while. Quite a while.
- While we were feeling sad about how nobody seemed to have what he needed, I had to poop. I was somewhat more expeditious but I fucking near ripped some plumbing out of the sink when it assaulted me. They put the DRYER AND THE FAUCET ON THE SAME THREE PRONGED CHROME OBJECT and since the ‘signage’ consisted of a teeny stamped-in logo about the size of your finger end, and which disappeared in the reflection created by direct sunlight coming into the fucking bathroom, I had no idea that I was about to stick my hand under what I thought was an automatic faucet only to get an F1 tornado blowing the remnants of someone else’s experiment in handwashing up my nose. The fact I didn’t scream blue murder should earn me a laurel in itself.
- Anyway, that mall is distinguished by how indistinguishable it is from other malls, and has like forty cell phone kiosks. We visited them all. We went to the Source, and Telus and Rogers and the rest of the row of cell phone kiosks, looking for an LG accessory. Please note: LG shutdown its smartphone division in 2021. Trust capitalism to orphan Paul’s tech. Finally, at a kiosk that hadn’t opened at 10 am, there was a cherubic Desi kid (he was 25, tops, short and round-faced and long-lashed and cheerful) and he said, “Come around, other side,” and found everything Paul needed (a new phone case and a new screen, which he did a skilled job of applying) and now Paul’s phone may survive a while longer. Paul was ecstatic and we got the hell out of that mall. Driving in that parking garage is one of the Stations of the Cross for New Westminster, stg (swear to god).
- It freaking near killed me not to go into the Purdy’s but I knew that it would be something I’d regret and I ate half a chocolate bar yesterday anyway. It was my gd birthday, I HAVE NO RAGRETS… This is a movie reference. I have never seen the movie, but I know about this image. This is the curse of thEE INTarwEBz
- Paul almost fell down the stairs heading back to the car. I watched him in real time forget and then remember how to walk downstairs. He should not be living on the second story of a building. It’s moments like this when I understand why Katie is occasionally flashing on terrified. If you don’t live with him or interact with him it’s invisible.
- Paul is almost to the point of not being able to use a bank card any more. The last half dozen transactions I witnessed have been characterized by errors caused by him stabbing the keypad at random. If he hadn’t been coached by our Desi vendor it mighta got lengthy.
- All our missions accomplished we scarpered, I drove Paul home (we’d gotten enough WALKING going up and down the mall to POOP so I felt fine about skipping a walk outdoors).
- We were masked for the duration.
Author: Allegra
Born when atmospheric carbon was 316 PPM. Settled on MST country since 1997. Parent, grandparent.
air quality
For whatever reason (I’m thinking a house fire and an inversion) the air quality is really crappy. We’ve had incredible ground fog for a day, one of the reasons we decided not to leave the house yesterday for my festal meal.
Today I have to run errands with Paul. I make it sound like a chore but I’m looking forward to it.
I wept, watching the Artemis launch (not live, Jeff stayed up but I didn’t). I wrote a song “When are we going back to the Moon?” and Artemis answered that question.
I had a perfect birthday. Jeff got me steak lobster veg and dessert and it was all fantastic.
A beautiful day
Paul needed driving around for an appointment yesterday, so I obliged. Went to Merven food truck which is apparently Iraqi style food – for fifteen bucks I got a falafel platter that fed me AND Paul (he was hungry and there was loads – a springy fresh Pita Factory pita, a mound of hummus, fantastic tabbouleh with grated cooked beet on top, five enormous heart shaped falafels with tangy sauce, and rice with sautéed onions on top). So we sat waiting for his blood pressure check and nomming hard. That platter fed two hungry seniors, 10/10 would eat again. Afterward I got in to see the nurse and ask about the ‘driving’ issue, so everyone’s on the same page right now. As things currently stand the doctor has advised Paul not to drive and he’s accepting that, but he’s also thinking he’s going to be able to start driving again and none of us are convinced that’s the case because not all of the tests are back and that will take a while. And in the meantime everyone is safe.
I told Paul that I’ll drive him to the US to see people but he has to cover my housing while I’m there. I can’t just fall out of the sky and land on some Seattle filker for two days when I only see for two days once a year for a con, so I’ll need somewhere to stay while he sees Janice. (She lives with Hank, who’s also a good friend of Keith’s.)
I got a bit of a walk in, in the GLORIOUS sunshine and did loads and loads of laundry, and today I am 64 years old. We’ve got an early supper scheduled.
The world is not at war, the Ukrainians killed two Poles on accident, and shit happens.
All the time
walking in Foreshore and running errands
That was my day yesterday.
Went to Paul’s place to pick him up. Suzanne was there for babysitting Ryker and doing the house – Ryker was asleep when I got there and Katie was out buying work boots – and Paul took so long to get ready I fucking near left without him. Everything is hella slow. Some days I put up with it better than others. Keith mocked me for my asking Paul to shake a leg.
Then checked with him whether he actually had insurance on the car he loaned/gave/handed to me and rather than getting mad at me he just said yes. As Keith has mentioned previously he’s had lots of time to get used to my style.
We went to Foreshore first. I tried to get the little birdies to come to the sunflowers but they were not interested. It was a pleasant walk in the warm sun and the cool breeze, not too many people, and after that we went to the library to drop off Wilful Blindness by Sam Cooper, “The Single Most Depressing Non Fiction Book I’ve Read Since King Leopold’s Ghost”. Then after that to the bank machine at the London Drugs Mall aka the forgettably named Westminster Centre, and then London Drugs itself, where I got a finger splint for Jeff’s ouchy, some dental instruments and finally a bath brush and some of that blueberry acai chocolate candy that I’m addicted to.
Then we went to the Pho Edmonds and I had my usual, the #32 (this time with extra salad and as always it was delicious, filling and a good value), and Paul had a small pho but no spring rolls this time and paid because the last time I paid for the hot and sour soup and sticky rice at Lougheed Mall which they are now trying to call “The City of Lougheed Shopping Centre” which is quite frankly the least exciting and most bloatedly non-informational thing you could call the second biggest shopping mall in Burnaby, after Metrotown, which got its moniker from a town planner in Baltimore in the 60s. OH THE EXCITEMENT OF RETAIL
Lois and Ruth are coming to see their bro in early December. They won’t be here long, sadly, but I am looking forward to seeing them SO BAD.
Today, since Jeff is now caught up on his laundry, I’m going to wash clothes, towels and rugs for a while. A long, long while. And I’m investigating going back on my schedule since my turnip tendencies are starting to irritate me.
Wordle in five this morning. I changed my starter word and that sort of foozled me for a while, but I got it without cheating, so there’s that.
3249 words on ‘special deputy’
9952 words on ‘totally boned’
And I wrote a new poem but I’m not posting it because I’m not really keen on it and I didn’t write it for a mass audience so I sent it to mOm.
The washer has arrived
It is a brand new top loader. Jeff smashed his left baby finger tip in the process of helping get it into the house; I’d provide a picture but mOm would o,O if she saw it (think of an anxious owl.)
I was supposed to hang with Paul but he never called me back.
Rob W., may the goddess adorn him, showed up with an axe and a plan, but we told him we have to wait for ‘the professionals’ who are being paid by the insurance company to get that treefall fixed, so we gabbed for a couple of hours and then I made him tea and kicked him out. He left his hat.
walkies
Jeff and I went for a little walk in the gorgeous sunshine yesterday afternoon. Jeff said that he should go for a walk and I said, “I’m going to stagger up the stairs, stagger up the hill to the park and stagger back again,” and he thought I was joking; he joined me after watching me put my shoes on. This is the same park at the start of the pandemic; the logo has all washed off that hoodie but the hoodie remains.
I missed the DD celebration yesterday. I am not sad, I don’t feel sad. I am somewhat immobilized though.
Russians out of Kherson. They’re starting to put anti tank cement blocks on their side of the border, which triggered Finnish Twitter to do a most pointed and technical takedown of how insanely useless it all was. (Altho the discussion was in Finnish you can translate tweets on the fly and man the Finns were just shaking their heads, it was wonderful. There were also comments that since it WAS useless, some oligarch musta got paid for it, ten times what it’s all worth. Lovely.)
Supposedly the new washer will come in the downstairs back door around 11 am today. No movement on the tree, not that I’d expect it on Sunday.
by aquilegiaformosa on tumblr
guys we’re not being cringe to keep out the twitter users. we’re being cringe to keep out the ALGORITHMS, the CAPITALISTS, the INFLUENCERS. twitter users are welcome as long as they agree this site is UNMARKETABLE
In other words become ungovernable by being someone you can’t make money from…. by being cringe. You know who’s cringe ? autistic people, by virtue of the intensity of their many hobby horses.
I prefer to be ungovernable by having my own website, that nobody ever looks at, but which will be invaluable to my family after I’m dead. That’s how things work. It’s the longitudinal and continuous energy of it, not the content, necessarily.
Worked on yet another fanfic, “Special Deputy on the Run” yesterday. I’ve poked into the file for Part II but I think I added 36 words.
The amount of shit kicking Zibethicus (my name for Elon, means muskrat) has taken on the internet is amazing. In a few short weeks he’s scorched his fortune, facing a lawsuit for over 50 billion dollars from a former investor choked that he essentially stole shares from Tesla, received the brickbats of the commentariat and been held up as a model of everything not to do in business. Every time he says so much as boo on twitter hundreds of thousands of people tell him he’s a fucking idiot; it’s glorious, but not enough to get a twitter account.
Continuing counts in the US election still trend Biden’s way. They didn’t poll people who never voted LOL__ so many pundits have tender buttskin hanging out on this that another public spirited activity on twitter these days is going through the pundits’s last two weeks of salty prognostications and retweeting it, saying things like THIS AGED LIKE MILK or DO YOU SUPPOSE YOU WILL EVER BE RIGHT ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT AS THE SPECTRUM FOR YOUR POLITICS etc etc.
It is GLORIOUS and marvellous in our eyes. The night show hosts are having a field day.
Mitch McConnell, easily one of the most corrupt and disgusting politicians in American history, is not Senate GOP Leader any more, and rumblings are someone is going to grab his 15 year old perch in the Senate. The people who are candidates in replacing him aren’t as likely to be as competent at either whipping votes or stealing anything they can reach.
We are about six episodes into Farscape. Every episode is weirder than the next. Truly bizarre show.
Virtually every pediatric ICU in the country is at double capacity. There are so many sick children that you cannot buy children’s aspirin in this country right now.
Spoke to Tammy on the phone the other day, she called. She confirmed that she’s coming at Christmas and I’m seeing her on Boxing Day.
Still no washer, still no tree fix
I’m going to take my meds and ignore the world right now. Filk cancelled again, and although it’s Dorothy Dunnett day I have concerns about zooming for a meeting today… oh well.
I have no idea where the above came from.
the hotel room in the Dominican Republic. A married couple who checked in at the same time got a room full of sewage for two days… this room was much better. Also a bottle of rum was like 4 bucks.
Katie was damned lucky I took a spare bathing suit. This is Saona Island.
can’t tell the difference
Elon Musk cannot tell the difference between bots and new users.
He believes he’s driving growth, instead Romanian bot farms are chugging along hard. User numbers are up? Must be his free speechification of the site.
I felt so good this morning and my mood has crashed again. Hard.
Shown below is the Rosette Nebula, credit the Hubble I do believe
various
To remember is to end all war. I thank my pOp and my unca Dave for serving. Not everyone gets in an airplane during a nuclear crisis and after kissing his baby girl goodbye, prepares for a vile, hot death.
I’m back on twitter. Honestly, I’m back just in time to watch it implode.
Alexis Madrigal: Something I’ve been thinking about Twitter: for those of us who are word people, this was once our place
People took off to Mastodon, another social network, and the previous users attacked and shit upon women of colour. BIG FUCKING SURPRISE
Victor Shi: NEW: data confirms 18-29-year-olds voted for Democrats more than *any other* age group yesterday. Young people literally prevented a Red Wave & saved Democrats. Full stop. If you know a young voter, please thank them. (from the 9th of November 2022)
WT.Social is a heap of dweebs with a user interface like a rainy afternoon in a Welsh mining town.
I was supposed to hang out with Paul yesterday but my gut raunch from the previous day continued. I made cinnamon buns not to make it better but to give me something else to have trouble digesting, I guess. I also made pork stir fry but the onions were weird.
Pawel Kosior painted the above in oils in 2020. Perfectly captures my current mood.
No progress on writing. I do feel much more cognitively with it this morning, we’ll see.
Someone came to take the tree down but it has to be the next door neighbours paying for it and then insurance blah blah I have no idea but the tree is still leaning on the neighbour’s garage. Not exactly sure what the landpeer was up to there, but Jeff seems to think things are headed in the right direction.
The washer? 2 moah day.
I just want to shout out to Jan Maxwell, a friend from Toronto, this morning, because she’s put many smiles on my face over the years and the picture of her and Soon’s grandson on my fridge gives me a smile every time I see it.
I send out love to Dave this morning SO THRILLED about your book and very happy that you’ve survived some ghastly, sad shit over the last half dozen years and remain your relatively good humoured and pragmatic self.
I send out love to Sue Sparlin this morning. I am very very happy she decided to work on being a professional actor and now has a RECURRING PART in a show made here in Vancouver. Big hugs darling.
I send out love to Lois & Bob this morning. I think about the bees and the chickens and that phenomenal steak Bob cooked for me the last time me and Paul were there. I AM CHEWIE I THINK WITH MY TUM. Did you know that Chewbacca’s ‘real’ nickname is CHAINBREAKER!? He spent a lot of time freeing other Wookiees.
I send out love to Onty Mary this morning. I regret that I have not sent you a letter recently, so I’m reaching up to my ancestors and asking them to bless you with a wonderful day of whatever the hell you want to do.
I offer love and thanks to the Best Roommate Evar™ Jeff.
And as always beeg hogs to Ryker and Alex and Keith and Kate.
Roundup
Midterms went better than expected. Ron DeSantis is now expected to be the Republican candidate for 2024’s presidential election. Everyone Trump rallied for lost; he’s obviously not helping the GOP.
Orcs (a humorous slur for Russians) are getting out of Kherson. Current casualty figures as stated by US military spokesmen is about 100K on both sides.
Spent a chunk of yesterday mall-walking with Paul and running errands, including picking up printer ink for Keith so he can at least try to get his passport application updated and sent (since Paul isn’t visiting friends in the US unless the person driving has a passport), grabbing yummy treats to stick in Katie’s face as she was assembling Ryker’s birthday present (a trampoline with a grab bar WHICH HE IMMEDIATELY COMMENCED TO USE APPROPRIATELY) and eating the amazing gluten free chicken soup Katie made and looking at watches (I want a watch). So I got a meal and a bit of family time. Suzanne was there, getting ready with Ryker for the new routine. I’m sad but what can you do but hold yourself ready for the long campaign?
Spoke to Paul and Keith (separately) about care ideas for Paul. I just can’t believe how emotionally exhausting dealing with all this is; it’s flattening for me. And nothing happens fast. I tell Paul I want a watch and for the next hour he asks me every five minutes if I’m going to buy a watch today. I have to keep cheerfully saying nope. My sheltering tree.
Honestly I think he’s relieved he’s not driving any more.
He always had great nap game but he can now pretty much nap anytime anywhere.
The challah from Cobbs is gone already, lol.
Ryker with his Grammy
Photo credit Suzanne Palen – she’s claiming Ryker as her grandson on Facebook and I’m thrilled because I’m not believing you can HAVE too many grandmas. And he is Alex’s well-beloved little bro.
Blue Lava
I have to CHARGE MY GUITAR isn’t that amusing. So my laptop is plugged in and it’s charging the battery in the new guitar. This looks pale blue, Mike got me a white one.
unique no?
Also, this is just for mOm; you know how I’ve ‘invented’ a disease for Brad… I just read a reddit post and the poster, who’s a caregiver, described her mother’s physical and mental challenges…. and it sounded as if she had symptoms exactly like Brad, and she’s post COVID too. (awake and aware and then just… not)
That gave me a turn.
No more Sharpe
Watched the last Sharpe episode, what a great piece of TV! and something that will be fun to rewatch.
Results in the midterms aren’t clear so I’ll comment later.
Nothing else to report except I made roast veggies. Now it’s time for coffee.
the latest fic
is about a bunch of heading for middle aged guys in a cover band, their rehearsals and romances….
and the first song our two heroes rehearse is “Addicted to Love” which of COURSE is a cover band song given that it was a number 1 hit in 1985.
And it was playing on the Muzak in the store this morning so I started to laugh.
I am easily amused.